Councillors appeal for help to operate public conveniences in Cross Roads and Penistone Hill as council funding is withdrawn

Bradford Council-owned public toilets in Cross Roads and Penistone Hill in Keighley will be sold off or demolished if no-one else comes forward to operate them.

Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury parish councillors have said it was unlikely that they could afford to take on the two toilet blocks without any supporting budget from the Council.

Parish council chairman, Councillor John Huxley, said Bradford Council had sent a letter explaining that it would be withdrawing funding for the toilets between September 2014 and March 2015.

The letter asks whether the parish council would be interested in taking over the running of them, though it emphasises that this transfer would not come with any accompanying cash.

Coun Huxley said: “The fact that there’s no budget for these means we can’t afford to do this by ourselves. It is a great shame.”

Councillor Gary Swallow agreed that the parish council could not run this service by itself. He added that the toilets at Penistone Hill were normally only open in the summer.

Councillor Peter Hill said: “Before we say ‘no’, we should ask Bradford Council what the running costs are for each toilet block.”

Coun Huxley said he would draft a letter to Bradford Council seeking further details.

He said he did not know how well used these toilet blocks are, though he understood the loos on Penistone Hill had previously been targeted by vandals.

“Two years ago Bradford Council was talking about us running these toilets in some kind of partnership with them,” he said. “We were waiting for more information on that, but then things went quiet.

“We would ideally like to keep these facilities, though we do understand Bradford’s financial dilemmas. At the moment there’s no financial incentive for us to run the toilets – we simply don’t have the budget.”

Earlier this year, Haworth Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council was part of a successful campaign to retain the public toilets in Haworth Central Park.

Bradford Council had planned to axe them to save money, but reversed its proposals following a public protest.